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November 24th, 1718

On November 24th in 1718, ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham branded Charles Vane a coward and led a mutiny to depose him as captain. Charles Vane and his crew had left Ocracoke, NC in mid-October, unsuccessful in attempting to recruit Blackbeard to join them in an attempt to retake New Providence from Woodes Rogers and re-establish their pirate republic.

Upon their return to the Caribbean and the Bahamas, they had successfully raided the island of Eleuthera. Inhabited mostly by families, the attack was a swift and complete success, with the pirates pillaging as much liquor and livestock as they could carry away.

Over the next month, historian Colin Woodard states that the pirates “lived riotously onboard, drinking heavily and gorging on freshly slaughtered animals.” While they were busy living to excess, they failed to capture a single prize for almost a month. Their merry revelry soon turned sour.

On the 23rd, Vane’s lookouts spotted a frigate downwind of their position and ordered his brigantine and sloop to bear down on it. As he closed in, he raised the black flag up the mainmast, expecting the ship to surrender.

Instead, the ship hoisted its own colors: a white flag with gold fleur-de-lis. No sooner than Vane realized he was chasing down a French navy vessel, it opened its gun ports and delivered a devastating broadside.

Outgunned, Vane gave the order to turn around and run. The French ship trimmed its sails and gave chase. The majority of the crew, believing that they could close and board the French man-of-war, were furious with the decision but had to abide. Vane, as captain, had absolute power “while fighting, chasing, or being chased.”

The next day the pirates were out of danger and Jack Rackham called a meeting of the ships company in an effort to challenge Vane’s rule. Although a small contingent agreed with Vane, the vast majority voted in favor of deposing him as captain in favor of Rackham.

Vane and his supporters were put aboard the consort sloop with some provisions and ammunition. Rackham, now captain, sailed away toward Jamaica. 

December 5th, 1717

The name "Blackbeard" is born after Henry Bostock and his men have an encounter with Edward Teach off the coast of Anguilla.

Somehow Henry Bostock lived to tell the tale. Then encounter took place on December 5, 1717, when for eight long hours he and his men remained Blackbeard's prisoners, never knowing from one minute to the next whether they would live or die. The attack took place off Crab Island near Anguilla, and for the rest of the day the Queen Anne's Revenge, accompanied by the sloop Revenge, cruised the waters of the Leeward Islands in search of more victims. During that time Bostock had plenty of time to watch Blackbeard in action, and when he wrote his statement for the governor of Barbados two weeks later he was able to describe his nemesis in some detail. In fact, the master of the sloop Margaret was the first to provide a description of the pirate who captured him, and it was he who first came up with the cognomen "Blackbeard."

from the book Blackbeard by Angus Konstam page 154

November 8th, 1718

On the 8th of November, 1718, twenty-nine pirates from the crew of the Revenge, members of pirate Captain Stede Bonnet’s crew, were executed in Charles Town, South Carolina.

The men had been brought as captives back from the Cape Fear River by Colonel William Rhett, along with Captain Bonnet, and since the beginning of the month, the pirates had undergone eleven trials. Found guilty, on November the 8th (a Saturday) the men were hanged until dead “at the White Point near Charles-Town” according to published transcripts from 1719 regarding the event.

”The White Point” at that time referred to a publicly owned site of oyster shoals exposed at low-tide, a landmark visible to all in the harbor; a prime location to ensure the select dangling corpses on display would be seen as a warning to those contemplating a life of piracy. Later in the month, 19 more pirates from the crew of Captain Richard Worley would be hanged here as well, and four and a half weeks later, Captain Stede Bonnet would be hanged at the same location.

Today, White Point Garden sits atop the Battery, which overlooks where “the White Point” once was, and in this location is a memorial marker to those executed nearby.

https://charlestondaily.net/the-story-of-the-pirate-hangings-at-white-point-garden-historic-charleston-sc/

September 7th, 1714

War of the Spanish Succession ; March 1701–September 7, 1714 

When the war ended thousands of "privateer" merchant sailors suddenly became unemployeed when England no longer needed them to wage war against the Spanish in Caribbean.

Left with little options the sailors turned to piracy to sustain themselves.

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The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) was a European conflict stemming from the death of the childless Charles II of Spain, who had no heir, leading to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs. 

England, the Dutch Republic, and the Holy Roman Empire formed the Grand Alliance to prevent the union of the French and Spanish thrones, supporting the claim of Archduke Charles of Austria (another Habsburg) to the Spanish throne.

The war concluded with the Treaties of Utrecht (1713), Rastatt, and Baden (1714), which recognized Philip of Anjou as King Philip V of Spain, but he had to renounce his claim to the French throne.

April 3rd, 1716

Samuel Bellamy and Paulgrave Williams take their first prize, an English merchant ship after they failed to have any luck at finding the Spanish wrecks off the Florida coast. 

They had originally set out to become rich off the Spanish wrecks but decided to become pirates instead once their plans did not work out.

July 31st, 1715

The Spanish treasure fleet of 1715

12 Spanish ships loaded with treasure left Havana Cuba on July 25, 1715 bound for Sevilla Spain.

On July 31, while sailing north between the Bahamas and Florida, they were hit by a hurricane and 11 of the 12 ships sank. The only one to survive was an accompanying French ship, the Grifon.

Over a thousand sailors drowned. 

The wrecks were scattered along the coast of Florida with the majority of treasure being buried underwater in the sand off modern day Vero Beach. 

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(This is part of a new little project where I want to keep track of some important dates in pirate history so I can make myself a timeline of events. I know it has been done countless times before on other blogs and websites but I want to do it myself for my own knowledge.)

The Real Reason Bermuda’s Beaches Are Pink

(fodors.com)

Whether you’re pulling up Google images of Bermuda’s pink-sand beaches for instant relaxation or vow to book a flight to the island (seriously, sinking your toes into this sugar-fine sand is dreamy!) there’s no doubt about it: these beaches are beautiful. Few other places in the world flaunt pink-sand beaches.

To be clear, this is not the Barbie-pink or petal-pink. It’s more like a mauve-y hue. But the differently colored sand is still something to experience and photograph.

Determined to crack the code about the science behind this phenomenon, we spoke to Dr. Amy Maas, a biological oceanographer who has lived in Bermuda for eight years. She works at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences.

“Within our lifetimes, they’ve always been pink beaches,” says Maas. And the sand is unlike any you’ve ever seen: both in appearance and in texture.

“It’s stickier,” says Maas. “Because it’s not rocky. Whereas a lot of the beaches on the East coast or West coast, they’re made up of broken-down rock, like terrestrial rock, which gives it that different feel.”

Where Are the Best Pink-Sand Beaches in Bermuda?

Let’s start with orientation. Say you’re only in Bermuda for a few nights and in addition to sampling Rum Swizzles (Bermuda’s national cocktail: rum, orange juice, pineapple juice, bitters, and grenadine) you desperately want to check out this pink-beach phenomenon for yourself. Where do you go?

According to Maas, if you only have time for one or two beaches, hit up the island’s South Shore. More specifically, Warwick Long Bay, Marley Beach, and Horeshoe Bay Cove. Just like the level of sunlight affects how blue an ocean’s water appears, how much light hits the sand demonstrates a different shade of pink.

But these are also consistent spots for pink sand. And it’s all because of a certain kind of single-celled animal that prefers the South Shore’s deeper waters.

Why are Bermuda's Beaches Pink?

The most concise explanation is that when single-celled organisms with red-colored shells–foraminifera, often called foram for short–that reside in the ocean die, they’re combined with the sand before washing up on the shoreline as pink. Their redness mixed with neutral hues in the sand—born out of quartz—is what makes the sand pink.

“Some of them live in the plankton and float around all their lives,” says Maas. “These guys are benthic [living on the bottom of the water]. They like to attach to things.”

Maas compares foram to coral. “It’s an animal that’s creating a rock [which] then is protecting other animals [as a reef] against wave action and storm action,” she says. “But unlike the corals, they’re single cells. When we think about other things that make shells, like clams or oysters or whatever, they build something called calcium carbonate, which is really hard. It’s what we see shells made out of. These guys [foram] add a little bit of magnesium. The thing that makes them so uniquely that color is [the] chemicals from the water they put into that shell.”

Those chemicals–magnesium and calcium carbonate–produce the shade of light ruby pink. Foram live in other bodies of water throughout the world, but their reaction in those waters differs.

There are fewer pink-sand beaches on the north side of Bermuda, near St. George’s—for a very specific reason that, again, has to do with science.

“The north side of the island is the inside of a volcano and it’s shallow reef,” explains Maas. “The water has to come through more so that’s a slightly different community. We tend to have less [foram] there.”

It’s illegal to take pink sand home from Bermuda that you’ve captured on the beach. However, many souvenir shops and craft markets sell tiny glass capsules of the pretty pink sand. Several jewelry artists like Alexandra Mosher and Jennifer Rodrigues also derive inspiration from the pink sand, transforming it into jewelry you can buy online.

“This whole island relies so much on those reefs that then become our sand that then become the attraction that bring people to it,” says Maas.” It’s intrinsically beautiful.”

https://www.fodors.com/world/caribbean/bermuda/experiences/news/why-are-bermudas-beaches-pink